BBC bias - failure to report Islamophobia in the Tory Party. Complaint to the BBC

Baroness Warsi, ex co-leader of the Tories, has recently spoken out about the high level of Islamophobia in the Tory Party.  The Muslim Council has called for an enquiry.  None of this has been reported on the BBC, in stark contrast to the endless reporting of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

I am a Jew, and member of neither Labour nor Tory parties, and find this totally different way of covering the stories shows clear bias in repeated criticising of one party for racism, and not even mentioning it in other parties.

Bias isn't just about how stories are covered, but which stories are covered and how much coverage they are given.  In the current context I would expect the BBC to report on the levels of racism to be found in all parties.

The Home Office is detaining pregnant women, victims of torture and people with learning difficulties - and they've no idea when they'll be released - letter to Julian Sturdy MP

Dear Julian, 

Sorry to be writing to you again in such a short space of time, but I believe all the emails are matters of great importance. 

The Home Office, as the subject suggests, are locking up people who are victims of torture, who have learning difficulties and many other vulnerable people. 

Rather than address the real problem the home office tries to change definitions so that it can continue with this barbaric behaviour, while pretending to do better. Something we have seen happen several times lately. 

It is clear that the home office needs to radically change the way it is working, with this and Windrush amongst other problems. 

Please write to the home secretary demanding that as a matter of urgency the home office starts using an internationally recognised definition of torture, and that it stops incarcerating victims of torture, people with learning difficulties and other vulnerable groups. 

Best wishes

Tom

Tom Franklin

Immigration - letter to Julian Sturdy MP

Dear Julian, 

This is almost getting embarrassing, I find myself writing to you again, this time about government immigration policy. 

I don't know if you have read the articles in Saturday's Guardian such as this one https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/15/why-the-children-of-windrush-demand-an-immigration-amnesty which I hope you will agree are shameful and shocking. 

In view of this I would be grateful if you would sign Early Day Motion 1182 calling for an independent review of Home Office policies and practice and the hostile environment. https://www.parliament.uk/edm/2017-19/1182

I am aware that in the past you have said that you do not sign EDMs, but not that you have signed EDM 647.

Best wishes

Tom

Tom Franklin

Syria - Open letter to Julian Sturdy MP

Dear Julian,

I am writing to express my concerns over the government’s actions in Syria. 

First, I do not understand how bombing will lead to peace.  We have seen Syria being bombed for the lest seven years and all it has lead to is more violence and more bombing.  Further, I do not see what the urgency was to bomb before there had been a time to see what the attack was and who was responsible. It feels very like before the Gulf war when the WDM inspectors were not allowed to finish their job – because there were no WDMs to find.

This brings me to my second point, that there does not seem to be any consistency in the government’s policy.  Saudi Arabia has been targeting civilians in the Yemen for many years now, without any criticism from the government.  The Saudi Arabian forces (which include embedded UK forces) have used white phosphorous and cluster bombs against civilians (a form of chemical warfare).  Not only has there been no criticism from the UK government it has sold over £3,500 billion of weapons to the Saudi government since the start of the war with Yemen.  It is therefore difficult to believe that the government is motivated by human rights concerns.

Thirdly, and perhaps in the long run most seriously, was the extraordinary claim by Theresa May that we could not wait for the UN as the Russians would probably veto any resolution calling for action.  This is a clear undermining of the international rule of law.  Next time it might be Russia or North Korea saying that they cannot wait for the UN as one of their enemies might veto their resolution.  We have an international legal framework, but once we start undermining it others will follow down that path and there is a serious danger of undermining the whole international settlement.

Finally, there has been the further erosion of parliamentary democracy.  Parliament has been very weak for many years (see for instance Lord Hailsham’s article on elective dictatorships), but Theresa May appears to have little belief in parliament.  It took a legal case to force her to refer invoking article 50 to parliament and now we have this clear assumption of further dictatorial powers to the executive.

As a parliamentarian I am asking you to

• Write to the Prime Minister asserting that it is Parliament, and only parliament, that should ever declare war (note that is different to responding to a declaration of war against the UK by another country).
• Write to the Secretary of State for International Trade and the Secretary of State for Defence demanding an end of sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia – and any other country that is committing war crimes

Thank you very much

Best wishes

Tom.

Tom Franklin

Referendum on the final outcome of the Brexit negotiations - Open letter to Julian Sturdy MP

Dear Julian,

As a democrat I hope that you will support a referendum on the final outcome of the Brexit negotiations.  I think that there are three key reasons for this:

• The original referendum was very close at 52% to 48%, hardly a decisive win for Brexit.
• It has become clear that Brexit campaign broke campaigning law in many ways, in particular through the way that Vote Leave passed money to BeLeave and the abuse of personal data
• When voting in the original referendum we had no idea what Brexit would look like with the result that many claims were made that are clearly not (or at least no longer) true.  Once the negotiations are completed we will know what Brexit would mean and therefore be able to give informed consent.

I hope that you will see fit to speak at the debate on the topic on 11 June and call for an informed democratic decision.

Best wishes

Tom.

Tom Franklin